Friday, November 29, 2013

Citi Bike #601

Citi Bike Passes 10 Million Trips A Year

Citi Bike exceeded 10 million trips this year, an increase of 24 percent and a record the mayor attributed to improvements to the bike share program and expansion into more neighborhoods, including parts of Queens, the Daily News reports:

The NYPD says 476 Citi Bikes have been stolen so far this year, compared with 300 in all of last year, although the company that runs the bike-share network says most are returned or found within 24 hours, NY1reports:

* Citi Bike is raking in millions of dollars in late fees—including from clueless tourists who don’t know the rules and annual members who constantly struggle to find a working dock, the Post reports: http://goo.gl/CqQA7a

* A deal to stabilize Citi Bike and
pave the way for potential expansion of the popular New York City bike
share program is taking shape, including the ability to raise rates
without city approval, Capital New York writes: http://goo.gl/pBXlHI

* New York City Transportation
Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said the city will work with Alta to
expand the Citibike program to other parts of the city to help the
program make a profit, the Daily News writes: http://goo.gl/afkVPe

* CitiBike is being asked to pay New
York City about $1 million for lost parking revenue because several
docking stations were placed in former parking spots, the Wall Street
Journal reports: http://goo.gl/5vzYvJ

Citi Bike has exceeded expectations, but one year into the service there's little hope for outer boro expansion. http://bit.ly/1h6JIkP

HOPE FOR CITI BIKE -- “Private report suggests Citi Bike could be a going concern,” by Dana Rubinstein:
“The Citi Bike program may be less wobbly than it seems. At the end of
2013, the company that runs the program, and which is now proposing to
raise user rates dramatically, prepared an internal analysis for the
Bloomberg administration … The analysis … suggests: … If the bike
system’s troubled operator (Alta Bicycle Share, which runs the city
program through its subsidiary NYC Bike Share) and its troubled
equipment supplier (Bixi) can find new, more competent owners or
investors, the system could become a sustainable or even profitable
operation, and could subsist at its current size without public funding.
That runs counter to the narrative that’s sprung up in the aftermath of
(accurate) reports of the popular system's current financial distress.” http://goo.gl/XiaLgR

Citi Bike, Needing Millions, Looks for Help(WSJ)
Leaders of Citi Bike are moving quickly to raise tens of
millions of dollars to rescue the popular bike-share program as it loses
money, according to people familiar with the matter.* Update Bill de Blasio Will Not Bail Out Money-Losing Citi Bike(NYO)De Blasio said that New York City’s
bike share program, which has struggled financially since its inception,
will not receive any public dollars, but that he would explore “other
methodologies” to save it * Citi Bike operators doing shabby job of maintaining bikes and docking stations, money problems cited(NYDN) * Boycott the bikes(NYDN Ed) Citi Bikers of New York, unite: In two months, the bicycle-sharing
program’s first annual memberships come up for renewal. Now is the time
for riders to make clear that they will not sign up again unless service
improves. The number of broken docks repaired within 48
hours fell from a lackluster 64% in August to just 50% in January and to 56% in
February, even though Alta's six-year contract demands a
99% repair rate, according to
monthly reports filed by company with the city's Department of Transportation.

Since Citi Bike launched in late May, the number of
complaints about the nation's largest bike-share system have decreased
sharply—even as ridership increased, according to city data.

Bike Lane Bike Lanes Multiply, but Critics Hit Brake(WSJ)
Sometime
this fall, depending on the weather, one final dash of green paint will
hit the asphalt on a New York City street: the last of the Bloomberg
bike lanes.*As the end of Mayor Bloomberg’s third term approaches, the
Department of Transportation has furiously expanded
the city’s bike network, with 54.5 miles of bike lanes in planning or
under construction this year after 17 miles were added in 2012.

NOT GIVING UP ON CITI BIKE? -- De Blasio said he supports a plan for Citi Bike workers to unionize and that despite the operator losing money while dealing with challenges like glitchy software and Hurricane Sandy damage, he believes the program has “been a success.” D.O.T. commissioner Polly Trottenberg said she is anticipating a resolution of the city’s talks with the program’s operator, Alta Bicycle Share, “soon.” Right now, the city is engaged in talks with Alta to see how it can fix the system without having to spend any city money. Alta has reportedly been in negotiations with a real estate company called REQX Ventures on a deal that would infuse the system with a lot more capital. More from Capital’s Dana Rubinstein:* City Hits Citi Bike with Surprise $1 Million Parking TicketCurbed NY-* Citi Bikes Are a Wild Success, But Will They Survive? Mashable*Bike and switch(NYP Ed) When then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced his new initiative to promote bike-riding in the city, he was emphatic about what it meant for taxpayers. The privately funded program needs an infusion of tens of millions of dollars just to stay afloat. And that doesn’t include the $1 million in lost parking revenue that the city is now asking the bike-sharing program to pick up. Turns out, it’s part of the contract’s fine print.Citi Bike Money Pit

Citi
Bike operators should open up about their shaky finances. There’s no
denying the popularity of bike sharing in New York City, not when an
estimated 90,000 riders have signed up
for annual memberships. You can see them — and daily and weekly renters
— pedaling around, all indications being that Citi Bike’s operators
have ironed out early technical kinks. But . . . Mayor Bloomberg on
Thursday said that his vaunted leap into
two-wheeled transportation has yet to become profitable. Uh, oh.